Reducing the rolling resistance of a pneumatic tire is useful for improving the fuel consumption of a vehicle. Techniques exist for reducing the rolling resistance of a tire such as, for example, using a silica-compounded rubber for the tread.
While the technique for reducing the rolling resistance of pneumatic tires described in “Recent Technical Trends in Tires” (Akimasa DOI, Journal of the Society of Rubber Industry, September 1998, Vol. 71, p. 588-594) provides an improvement to the material, it is also possible to reduce the rolling resistance by modifying the structure of the pneumatic tire.